[Relevance of MRSA on a Visceral Surgical Intensive Care Unit]

Background: Resistance to antibiotics is a worldwide increasing problem. A well-known example is methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA. What is the relevance of MRSA on a surgical ICU? Patients/Material and Methods: On a 20 bed academic SICU/intermediate care ward 14,976 patients were treated in a seven-year period. We identified only 98 MRSA-positive patients. 56 (57 %) of them were merely colonised, 42 (43 %) suffered from an MRSA infection. A control group comprised 56 similar patients without MRSA detection. Results: Patients with MRSA infection had a higher mortality rate (OR 4.18; p = 0.002), but only 4 out of 20 patients died due to the MRSA infection. APACHE 2 score of more than 20 was predictive for being colonised with MRSA (OR 3.08; p = 0.04), but it was not a risk factor for developing an MRSA infection (OR 1.03; p = 0.95). Patients with MRSA colonisation did not have a higher mortality rate than patients without. Conclusion: Outcome depended on severity of the disease, but not on the MRSA colonisation status. Patients with MRSA infection were more likely to die, but the reason of death rarely was MRSA.